The instant invention relates to epoxy curing agents and, in particular to epoxy curing agents comprising amidopolyamines.
Amidopolyamines are known to be used as curing agents for epoxy resins and typically are low viscosity amber-colored liquids. The advantages of amidopolyamines over conventional curing agents include reduced volatility, reduced skin-irritation, more convenient mixing ratios, increased flexibility and impact strength in the cured products. Examples of conventional curing agents are described in H. Lee and K. Neville in Handbook of Epoxy Chemistry, McGraw Hill book company © 1967, p. 10-2 to 10-3); hereby incorporated by reference.
Generally, in a composition having a short pot life, a reaction abruptly occurs and the time to reach the cured state is short, whereas in a composition having a long pot life, the time necessary for curing is relatively long. As a result, there is a need in this art for a liquid epoxide-based composition having as long a pot life as several tens of hours and being curable at relatively low temperature range (moderate temperature range) of 60-100° C. Such a composition comprising an epoxide and curing agent both being a liquid would enable paint coatings to be conveniently applied at ambient temperatures without premature cure.